The Fast That I Desire

What’s the relationship between fasting and Christianity? Father Thomas Keating describes, in this video clip, that while external fasting is recommended at times in the Bible, fasting from our desires for power, control, affection, esteem, and approval, through practice and prayer, is essential. Fasting is not merely repressing, denying or pushing away our desires, but actually engaging, befriending, and objectively understanding our desires, thus creating distance from them, rather then letting our desires take us over.